Sr. Solutions Engineer, Pre-Sales (East Coast)

Senior Solutions Engineer, Pre-Sales (East Coast)
Sales Engineering | United States (Remote)
You'll be the technical lead in Alkira's largest enterprise deals — in the room with network architects and infrastructure directors, owning the technical side of the deal from first conversation through POC to close.
This is a pre-sales engineering role. You'll partner directly with an Account Manager on strategy and carry real influence over what we build next — our Product team treats SE field feedback as a primary input to the roadmap.
Location: Remote, US. Candidates should reside in East Coast, USA
Travel: approximately 25%, including regional air travel as needed. Please discuss the specifics for this position with the recruiter.
What you'll do
Present and demo the Alkira platform to technical decision makers, from engineer to CIO
Clearly articulate the Alkira value proposition and have a sound understanding of market, industry and competitive landscape
Partner with Alkira Account Managers to understand customer requirements and pain points. Assist with any technical asks from customers and help respond to RFP/RFIs
Scope, run and win Proof of Concepts end to end
Assist customers with design and deployment based on best practices
Work with Alkira Product Management team to provide feedback on upcoming features from the customer's lens
Track and drive key customer features/asks with Alkira Product Management to implementation
What you need
8+ years in a customer-facing pre-sales engineering role — Sales Engineer, Systems Engineer, Solutions Consultant or Solutions Architect — ideally at a networking or security vendor, cloud provider, channel partner, or consultancy
Strong networking fundamentals – Everything below builds on this, and it is not negotiable
Deep expertise in routing protocols and technologies, including BGP, OSPF, and static routing, with hands-on experience in route policy design, route redistribution, filtering, and traffic engineering
Understanding of network virtualization and software-defined networking, including VRFs, multi-tenant network architectures, SD-WAN, and the encapsulation protocols used to build overlays at scale (GRE, VXLAN, GENEVE and similar)
Hands-on experience with IPsec VPNs, encryption standards, NAT, and secure connectivity architectures
Good understanding of how enterprises extend cloud connectivity using a variety of Networking Technologies (i.e. Cloud On-Ramps, SD-WAN and IPsec)
Experience in large-scale enterprise network design and deployment experience across data center, WAN and hybrid/multi-cloud
A deep understanding of network services — DNS, DHCP, load balancing, traffic inspection and similar
The ability to troubleshoot live, in front of a customer, across routing, security and cloud domains
Excellent written and verbal communication, and comfort presenting and demoing to customers in person – In this role you are the technical credibility of the company
Strongly preferred
Understanding of cloud networking constructs across AWS, Azure, and GCP (e.g., VPCs/VNets, Transit Gateway, Virtual WAN, Cloud Router, peering, and hybrid connectivity such as Direct Connect and ExpressRoute)
Network security expertise, including firewalls (e.g., Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, Check Point), firewall policy design, service insertion/chaining, and Zero Trust principles
Relevant technical certifications (e.g., CCNP/CCIE, AWS Advanced Networking, Azure Network Engineer, PCNSE)
Familiarity with Terraform or infrastructure-as-code for network automation
BA/BS/MS in a technical field
Strong passion for sales and creating long-lasting professional relationships
About Alkira
Alkira, a Lumen Connect® solution, is building the future of enterprise networking: one programmable platform to connect, secure, and operate every cloud, site, partner, data center, and AI workload.
Founded by Amir and Atif Khan, the creators of Viptela and pioneers of the SD-WAN market, Alkira was built to radically simplify how enterprises deploy and manage network infrastructure. Today, as part of Lumen, we are bringing that cloud-native operating model to a global network foundation trusted by the world's largest enterprises.
Our platform helps customers move faster without managing hardware, stitching together providers, or operating fragmented cloud networks. Teams can build and scale connectivity on demand, apply consistent security and segmentation, and gain visibility across distributed environments from one place.
At Alkira, you'll help shape the next chapter of networking: cloud-like consumption, private-network performance, and total control across the enterprise. We move fast, solve hard problems, and build technology that changes how global businesses connect.
Join us and help build the future of networking.
Compensation Disclosure
This information reflects the anticipated base salary range for this position based on current national data. Minimums and maximums may vary based on location. Individual pay is based on skills, experience and other relevant factors.
Location Based Pay Ranges:
$118,079 - $196,797 AL AR AZ FL GA IA ID IN KS KY LA ME MO MS MT ND NE NM OH OK PA SC SD TN UT VT WI WV W
$123,991 - $206,639: CO HI MI MN NC NH NV OR RI
$129,891 - $216,482: AK CA CT DC DE IL MA MD NJ NY TX VA WA
Life at Alkira, a Lumen Connect Solution
Life at Alkira is human and connected, even in a fast moving, AI‑focused organization. We set clear expectations and trust people to meet them. With real support and shared accountability, teams collaborate better, move faster, and deliver meaningful outcomes.
Our Lumen 8 behaviors guide how we interact, make decisions, and work together, shaping a culture built to perform and win. To learn more about Life at Alkira, a Lumen Connect Solution
and how we live into the Lumen 8, please visit:
https://jobs.lumen.com/global/en/life-at-lumen
Background Screening

Employment type
Full-Time

Work arrangement
Yes